Given that humans have a fair few body parts, it’s understandable that anatomists had to get a bit creative when it came to naming them. That being said, some of those names are downright odd – so where did they come from?
Coccyx
Better known as the tailbone, the coccyx is the final segment of the spine, and a reminder of how evolution doesn’t always know how to tidy up after itself. It’s made up of between three and five bones fused together into a curved triangle shape that points at the end.
The ancient Greeks thought this looked a bit like a cuckoo’s beak, though their word for it was “kokkux” and over time, that transformed into the Latin word coccyx.
Hippocampus
The ancient Greeks seem to have had a thing for naming body parts after what they looked like, and in the case of the hippocampus, that appears to be a seahorse. Their term for it was “hippokampos”, which is an amalgamation of “hippos”, meaning horse, and “kampos”, meaning “sea monster”.
The anatomical snuffbox
Ok, the anatomical snuffbox isn’t actually called that if we’re being technical about it – anatomists would call it the foveola radialis – but why on Earth would that dent you see below your thumb when you flex your hand be called that?
It’s one of those terms where it’s what it says on the tin – or in this case, a snuffbox. Back in the day when snorting snuff was a thing, this little depression made a handy (wahey) place to pop your ground tobacco.
Tragus
The tragus is that little flap of cartilage on the ear that’s connected to the side of the face, but the origins of the word have far more to do with the tuft of hair that can appear behind it than what it’s actually made of.
Tragus is the Latin transformation of the Greek word “tragos”, meaning goat. According to 18th century Flemish surgeon Jan Palfijn, it came to be associated with the little nub on the ear because “it is the site of hairs similar to those of a billy goat”.
Philtrum
For the trivia fans out there, you probably already know what a philtrum is. If you’re not a walking encyclopedia, however, it’s that small groove between your nose and your mouth – and in times gone past, people thought it was sexy as fuck.
The earliest known example of the use of the word philtrum is in the early 1600s and in this form, it’s a Latin word. However, its origins lie in the Greek word “philtron”, meaning “love potion”.
That’s because the ancient Greeks considered the philtrum to be one of the most erogenous spots on the body. Whatever floats your boat, I guess.
Source Link: Tailbones, Snuffboxes, And Philtrums – Where Do Body Part Names Come From?
